THEORY OF THE EARTH. 59 



been covered with water for many thousand years. 

 He supposed that this water had gradually retired; 

 that all the terrestrial animals were originally in- 

 habitants of the sea ; that man himself began his 

 career as a fish: And he asserts, that it is not un- 

 common, even now, to meet with fishes in the 

 ocean, which are still only half men, but whose de- 

 scendants will in time become perfect human be- 

 ings.* 



The system of Buffon is merely an extension of 

 that before devised by Leibnitz, with the addition 

 only of a comet, which, by a violent blow upon the 

 sun, struck off the mass of our earth in a liquefied 

 state, along with the masses of all the other planets 

 of our system at the same instant. From this sup- 

 position, he was enabled to assume positive dates 

 or epochs: As, from the actual temperature of the 

 earth, it could be calculated how long time it had 

 taken to cool so far. And as all the other planets 

 had come from the sun at the same time, it could 

 also be calculated how many ages were still re- 

 quired for cooling the greater ones, and how far 

 the smaller ones were already frozen. 



In the present day, men of bolder imagina- 

 tions than ever, have employed themselves on 

 this great subject. Some writers have revived 

 and greatly extended the ideas of Demaillet. 



* Telliamed. 



